Many aspects of online technology can be very intimidating to newcomers, but blogging does not need to be one of them. Everyone can benefit from learning how to effectively inform and entertain visitors that come to their website, through the art of blogging. Take some tips from this article to make your blogs come alive and have the desired effect on readers.
Use the correct spam filter for comments. If you require registration to comment, a CAPTCHA on the registration page is usually sufficient to keep spammers away. If you allow anonymous comments, an “advanced CAPTCHA,” that is, one that asks the user for “the number of hours in a day” or something similar is usually enough. Avoid services like Akismet, as these produce lots of false positives.
Make sure that you have SEO friendly themes, plug-ins and templates. This will allow your blog to load very quickly. The faster something loads, the more people are going to be willing to look at it. If a page takes to long to load, more than likely a visitor will just close the page.
Don’t go too broad with your posts. If you have different skills, try using them on a specific topic. Creating broad blog posts in an uncontrollable way can make your brand dissolve. Even if you have readers that are interested in various topics, you’re making it harder for people to recognize your single brand.
Make sure that you are productive with your blog. Do not allow yourself to waste your time watching television, or playing games when you could be doing things to make your blog bring in more visitors. When you are using a blog to make money, you are going to have to put the work hours into it.
Set goals for your blog. Having set goals that you want to achieve will go along way towards increasing your productivity. Decide how many posts you want to make in a given week. Determine what your focus is going to be and what keywords you are going to be targeting. Taking the time to work out your goals, will keep you on focus and blogging productively.
Everything you do can end up being the subject of a blog. Take notes when you are away from the computer, if you stumble across an idea that may translate into a post. You want to always keep your eyes open for subject ideas. Writing is the easy part, it’s coming up with the initial concept that usually leads to writer’s block.
Post content that will be relevant to your readers. Instead of blogging about your everyday life, offer tips and tricks to your readers to go along with your life such as recipes or travel tips. Your readers will love to utilize these tips in their own homes and lives instead of merely reading about your life.
Use pictures in your content. Pictures are attention grabbing and are an easy way to convey your ideas without words. It is certainly true in terms of blogging. Pictures can say much more than words can. So, always use images as often as possible in your posts.
To help you get more traffic to your blog and keep up with the latest trends, you should focus some of your attention on submitting your post and blog links to social bookmarking sites. Sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, are all great places where you can submit your blog links.
Design your blog to keep not just the reader’s interest but also your interest. If you grow bored with what you are writing about, you won’t be likely to keep blogging. Even if you do, the quality of your writing will suffer. Your readers will be able to tell that your writing has lost some of its punch.
Write more informally for a blog than you would for an article or business report. A blog is meant to be fun and engage your readers, not preach to them about something. Treat the blog as an entertaining social media vehicle. This is vital to your success as a blogger. It is important to establish an enjoyable, friendly connection to readers, so that they are more inclined to return.
Don’t make your blog look too crowded or your readers will go elsewhere. If you jumble everything together, trying to get the most material you can get on one page, readers will become overwhelmed. Carefully determine what is important to include on a page, and what is better reserved for the next page.
Don’t ramble on with your content when creating your blog entries. You want to make certain you are doing research and finding the right topics for your blog. Writing irrelevant and incorrect blog posts will result in your blog failing. Remember always that the key to your blogs success is the content.
When blogging, use a font that stands out and is easily readable. When a reader accesses your blog, you need to grab his or her attention, and make him or her interested right away. Provide the image and content that will appeal to the reader. This engages the readers, and they are likely to come back again.
Know what you’re talking about before you post. If you’ve got a lot of knowledge on a topic, you’re less likely to make a misleading or inaccurate post. Additionally, you will require a sufficient level of expertise in order to adequately respond to comments.
Research who your readers are before you ever start writing. People that share an interest in a particular subject usually have a number of other characteristics in common as well. You can use that fact to your advantage to accomplish your goals. Your goal may be to inform, it may be to sell a product. To do either, you need to know your readers.
So you now see that blogging can be an enjoyable way to communicate online, without the typical formality that exists when conducting business. When your site visitors are relaxed and well informed, they will be more likely to trust you and invest in your products or services. Take the insights gained here and put them to work in your own blogging efforts.